<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Goals for the Future by PaintedYertle</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27568813">Goals for the Future</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintedYertle/pseuds/PaintedYertle'>PaintedYertle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Adopted Children, Fluff, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Kidfic, M/M, Neil and Andrew have adopted children</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:27:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,743</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27568813</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintedYertle/pseuds/PaintedYertle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Neil lives in a house of four now (seven if you count the three cats).</p><p>AKA Neil's cold heart is soft for his own child when he needs to tuck them in.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>145</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Goals for the Future</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Neil lives in a house of four now (seven if you count the three cats) so hot water has become a divided luxury. By the time he walked out with damp hair while wearing sweatpants and his college t-shirt that somehow still fit him, all the lights in the house were off. The stove clock read quarter after midnight. There was a thunderstorm outside.</p><p>By this time of night the kids would be in bed. Neil spotted a flickering light in the living room. For a split second he thought it was lightning, but it was the TV. Whatever channel it was on, some late-night Addams Family rerun, was left muted. Neil walked over to find Jonah, his son, lying down on the couch. The kid was awake but his eyes were half-lidded and his attempt to pet Sir on the floor was uncharacteristically slow.</p><p>Neil walked to the couch then knelt down to Jonah’s eye level. The kid’s eyes seemed to register Neil blocking the TV but displayed difficulty staying open.The cat scurried away at the presence of a larger being.</p><p>“C’mon,” Neil said, taking the wool blanket on Jonah’s legs and draping it over the rest of his body, “Time for bed.”</p><p>That received a small groan from the kid. He had to be exhausted, since that was the quietest protest he ever gave.</p><p>Neil urged Jonah to sit up. “I’m gonna pick you up,” he said, “That okay?”</p><p>Jonah made another noise, this one shorter and more affirmative. Neil scooped him along with the blanket up into his arms. Jonah was nine and a growth spurt hadn’t hit him quite yet, so he was still small and light enough to still fit in Neil’s arms. Neil detected a sweet scent from Jonah’s hair. Given how much the kid hogged the hot water an hour prior it was no surprise.</p><p>Neil stood up again to turn off the TV. Once he pressed the power button and darkness absorbed the room Jonah wrapped his arms tightly around Neil’s neck. After a moment the tension melted out of Jonah and his body eased to a slump. Neil’s breath hitched at that. Due to their small frame physical touches from their kids rarely set off alarm bells for Neil or Andrew. But this felt separate from that.</p><p>Outside, the rain rushed down the frame of their house. Jonah’s body warmed Neil’s chest. Every breath Neil took in held a soothing scent. The blanket had a soft texture. Jonah’s breathing slowed so much on Neil’s neck it tickled, and the grip of his arms loosened in the feeling of security. After allowing a moment to assess the details and have it all wash over him, this had to be one of the better moments in Neil’s life. Neil squeezed Jonah in return, needing to hold back his strength, wanting to hold him tight enough to prove no one could take him.</p><p>After a moment Neil navigated the darkness to find his kid’s room. The door, labeled with the names of the kids drawn in colored pencil on construction paper, was left ajar. While they aren’t related by blood Neil and Andrew’s children weren’t immune to night terrors, so an open door gave them an easy way out. Upon nudging the door open with his foot Neil could hear the other occupant of the room breathing. If he allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness he would be able to see the frame of a little girl entangled in blankets with her fox plush.</p><p>Neil slipped through the crack in the door to make his way to the empty bed on the other side of the room. He had to shake his foot out of a wire hanger and narrowly avoided tripping over a stack of books the siblings were sharing. It was the expected amount of clutter when visiting their room.</p><p>Once his leg felt the edge of the bed Neil bent down and let go of Jonah. As Neil undid the blankets on the made bed and adjusted the one from the couch over it Jonah was semi-conscious enough to to settle under them. The outskirts of the blankets were pulled over the kid’s shoulder, and once he could Jonah begin to calm and settle, Neil gave him a quick peck on the forehead before moving to leave.</p><p>That’s when there was a tug on his shirt.</p><p>“Dad?” Jonah said, his voice weary, “Stay?”</p><p>Those were the two words which pinned deep enough into Neil’s core to keep him from moving. Neil rolled his eyes and slumped his shoulders in immediate defeat. He knelt back down and took the hand gripping the end of his shirt into his own, circling his thumb around Jonah’s palm.</p><p>Neil looked down at the nest of warmth which contained Jonah. The thing was Neil and Andrew would always be in recovery. They could never heal as completely as some of their friends and family preferred it.  Jonah and his sister were different. They were still children. Neil and Andrew had managed to take them into their care before the damage got too bad. It wasn’t a contest over who had the worst trauma, but their scars didn’t run as deep as Neil or Andrew’s, and there was a chance to leave it that way.</p><p>Every time he looked at his two kids all Neil could think about was the parent he wasn’t going to be. One example on that extensive list was someone who lived vicariously through their kids. He wasn’t envious of them. There was no way he could be. Instead he looked at Jonah and viewed every what-if and could’ve-been as an almost-broken cycle of abuse. Something like that was no longer out of the realm of possibility. Hope was right before him, breathing. Surviving. That safe life reserved for both of them taking a different shape than he expected.</p><p>Neil placed Jonah’s hand on the bed and ran his own fingers’s through the kid’s hair. He decided to stay where he was until he knew Jonah was asleep, which couldn’t be long given how Jonah’s eyes fell shut at his touch.</p><p>Neil would rip apart anyone’s attempt to ruin this, and Andrew would outdo him.</p><p>It was a few minutes before Jonah stayed asleep. He didn’t react when Neil pulled away this time. He rose and moved for the door again trying not to wake his daughter. The sound of the still-pouring rain gave him enough cover for him to move more, but that didn’t the mess from interfering with the mental layout Neil had of the room. He managed to slip out the door again while only stepping on one sneaker. Darn kids.</p><p>Neil didn’t know why it felt so viscerally different between hearing Andrew’s breathing in the dark vs their kids, but it felt that way. Jonah and Elle’s room was inviting, but Neil could feel an energy from Andrew and his room that drew him in.</p><p>“What took you?” Andrew asked as Neil crawled into their bed. Figures he wouldn’t stay asleep through Neil’s movements, if he was sleeping at all.</p><p>“Had to put the little goblin to bed,” said Neil, “I got lucky and he actually listened for once.”</p><p>“Should’ve left him there.”</p><p>“I’ll let you pay for the TV bill then.” Neil turned to face Andrew, seeing his silhouette and feeling his stare. A lightning flash showed that Andrew’s eyes were still open.</p><p>As he felt himself drifting off he also felt his shirt being gripped into Andrew’s fist. It clung there and did not move. <em>Stay. </em>He didn’t know why or when anyone began to think it was a good idea to find solace in him, but more than once person did now. It may have been from the shower Neil just took or the ambient rain or being pinned under his lover’s protective watch, but he suddenly felt sleepy and safe. That feeling ironically made him anxious, since that also meant he was vulnerable. Neil closed his eyes, burrowed his face into his pillow, and breathed out. He allowed it just this once.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>Bonus: If it was Andrew</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Jonah felt something small sting his shoulder. He twitched awake, only now realizing he fell asleep. Whatever hit him was blocked by the blanket wrapped over him. He gathered that he was on the couch in the living room, one of the two cats was on the floor, the TV was on, it was raining out, and that a second sting hit him on the leg.</p><p>He sat up. The adult sitting on top of the side table in front of the window wearing armbands was aiming rubber bands at him.</p><p>“What the hell?” said Jonah. The next thing he gathered was how tired he felt and how much it showed in his voice.</p><p>“Bed.” said Andrew.</p><p>Gomez Addams was kissing his wife’s arm on the TV, and as the light flickered over half of Andrew, it seemed like the shadows favored the living man instead. Jonah looked down to see two rubber bands on his blanket. A third one zipped through the air and landed right next to Jonah’s hand. It startled the cat, who Jonah could now tell was Sir, sending him dashing into the kitchen.</p><p>“Alright! I’m going!” Jonah said. He hopped off the couch and bunched up the blanket he vaguely recalled but could have sworn he only left over his legs before falling asleep. “Y’know, Dad usually carries me.”</p><p>“Well, your daddy ain’t here. He’s unconscious, like you’re keeping me from being. <em>Bed</em>.” Jonah grumbled as he stormed to his room. “And don’t wake your sister!”</p><p>It was dark in the hallway. Then there was a crash of thunder, and while it wasn’t something Jonah was afraid of, the unexpectedness of his startled him. He hurried through his door and dove beneath the covers. He didn’t like admitting it, but he felt safer with his sister’s presence in the room, even if she hadn’t been his sister for very long. Maybe that was why he still felt safe when he heard a creek at the door. He didn’t have to peek over the covers to know that Andrew was watching on the other side.</p><p>Jonah knew he could tease Andrew about how much he knew he cared, just like he had seen Neil do over and over, but that could wait until morning.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Nora: *strongly implies Neil and Andrew will never have children other than cats*<br/>Me, who should be working on Yuletide fic but is writing this: Hm, interesting. *duct tapes AU to the tags* There I fixed it.</p><p>Also comments always appreciated :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>